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Match Recap: Durham United FA 0 - 2 North Mississauga Panthers

08/11/2017, 11:30am EDT

By League1 Ontario staff

Sarah Nixon (70') and Carla Briscoe (90') scored in the second half to give visitors North Mississauga Panthers a 2-0 win at the whistle over hosts Durham United FA, and first place in the women's division table.

A clean sheet was maintained by Vanessa Fiore, and North Mississauga's assistant coach Trevor Bertrand said the result was largely due to the defensive prowess of the Panthers.

"We are extremely pleased," he said. "We made some adjustments, but I think it's our back four that really solidifies the team. You could see it again today - they were solid."

"We got a good opportunity first half, second half we sealed it off. We made some changes and played two holding mids, hoping we could score on the counter-attack and that is exactly what happened today."

Durham had the majority of possession in the first half, but could not find a way through the well-marshalled defensive block of North Miss.

"We missed our chances and the other team was very, very disciplined," said Durham head coach, Ramin Mohammadi.

"They stuck to the plan, they wanted to defend and counter and they achieved it in the last couple of minutes. We had most of the possession, but we couldn't do much with it."

"We went through them on occasion but today wasn't our day."

"We allowed them to play in their own half, which is not dangerous to us," agreed Bertrand.

"Let them play in their half and once they come into our half, try and them high and counter-attack. It was crucial to get a goal in the first fifteen minutes on a counter, and that is what happened."

North Miss introduced a large number of their up-and-coming prospects for this match versus Durham, and have a plan in place to adjust for vacating senior players to university programs.

"We have been working with our youngest ones, and it is the pace that seems to affect them the most," said Bertrand.

"But we have been working with them and they practice nearly twice a week with our first team so they get acclimatized to the pace of the game. There were a couple of them that stood out today, and kudos to them."

"This is what I think development is about - using the younger ones when the older ones have gone back to university, and give them the opportunity to play."

North Miss now have a two point lead and a game in hand on second place Vaughan Azzurri, and a five point lead on third place FC London. However, FC London hold two games in hand on the Panthers.

Durham United FA will next play Darby FC on August 18 at Whitby Soccer Centre, Whitby.

North Mississauga SC will next play Sanjaxx Lions on August 13 at Hershey Centre, Mississauga.